The invention relates to an armor-piercing inertial projectile (hyper-velocity kinetic energy penetrator projectile) with a prepenetrator, which has a substantially uniform diameter over its entire length.
Such type projectile is, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,194.
The effect of the penetrator on an inclined armored plate was determined to be such that the axis of a penetration channel, which is formed at impact extends in proximity to the surface normal and therefore encompasses an angle with the firing direction of the projectile. This causes penetrators made of steel to bend and with heavy metal penetrators to break up or disintegrate which detracts significantly from the target effectiveness of the corresponding penetrator when impacting on a multi-plate armored target.